Southside teen recovering, walking after fall in France

Four months ago, 18-year-old Alex Kalscheur was bound to his bed in France, but today, he is home and walking.

Kalscheur survived a 30-foot fall in the French Alps on Grenoble, France in July. He injured two vertebrae in his back.

After spending 18 days in a hospital in France, he finally returned home to the southside with the help of donations from friends and the community. His GoFundMe, started by a family friend, raised over $70,000 in two weeks.

But returning home was just the beginning of his path to recovery. As soon as he returned in late July, he had a second surgery to repair a mistake made by the doctors in France. Doctors in France left a piece of bone in his spinal cord during his first surgery right after the fall, he said.

Because of the nature of the previous surgery that put rods in his back, doctors in Indianapolis had to go a different way to fix the problem.

Surgeons cut open his side, deflated his lung and moved his ribs, muscles and diaphragm. He said this surgery was more difficult to recover from because of the extensive work done.

But, four months after his fall, he is walking again with a walker. He goes to physical therapy twice a week, and he puts in more time at the gym at least three times a week.

“You want to do something, so you push yourself to do it,” Kalscheur said. “I really truly think I will get better, but I know I won’t get better if I just sit around.”

His mom, Amy Kalscheur, told him he needs to train like an Olympic athlete, and she is impressed with his worth ethic, she said.

“I would think most kids would wake up and go, ‘Eh, I don’t want to do this anymore. I just want to lay down.’” Amy said. “I push him, but I don’t have to drag him.”

Amy said a spinal cord injury such as Alex’s is complicated. His hips and calves don’t work, but his knees and thighs work fine, and every now and then he can move his toes, she said.

His time put into recovering made him able enough to go back to work as a manager at the McDonald’s on County Line Road in Greenwood just over a month ago.

He is currently working three hours shifts, mostly sitting down.

“I’m the kind of person who loves to move around and be everywhere at the same time, but I’m confined to this little space,” he said.

Even though he is making strides in his recovery, its not happening fast enough to suit him. He tries to keep himself from falling into a depression by giving himself five minutes a day to be sad or vent, but then he goes right back to work, he said.

“There is no doubt in my mind that if I didn’t do that, I’d probably be sulking at home right now,” he said.

Looking back, he and his mom said they are thankful his injuries weren’t worse.

“It was really bizarre how little he was hurt,” Amy said. “God had his hand in this. It’s easy to say.”

Doctors in France and Indianapolis told Alex that he may fully recover from his injuries, but they didn’t make any promises.

“They said they don’t know, but I know there’s no way I’m going to not recover because it’s me,” he said.